Downtown property owners vote to tax themselves $4M a year for BIZ zone

A proposed business improvement zone would lie roughly between the freeways — I-75 to the north; I-375 to the east; M-10 to the west — and the Detroit River, and would impact the 253 commercial property owners in that expanse.

Today, downtown Detroit property owners voted to voluntarily tax themselves at a collective rate of $4 million per year to fund cleanup, safety and beautification efforts.

“We’re happy,” said Robert Gregory, senior vice president of the Downtown Detroit Partnership. “I think it ended up about where we thought it would be.”

When the Detroit Department of Elections tallied the votes, 86 percent of the weighted value of those submitted were in favor of the BIZ. To pass, it needed more than 60 percent. (The weighting was a formula based on floor space and assessed property value.)

In raw numbers, 348 ballots were received out of 571 mailed out to 230 property owners. Of those, 258 ballots were in favor.

That 258 carried a weighted value of 61.3 percent of the 571 total eligible ballots. (The difference between the 86 percent and the 61.3 percent is whether you consider the pie to be all eligible voters or just those who returned ballots. Either way, the BIZ passed.)

All property owners in the district were eligible to vote except owner-occupied residential buildings and nontaxable properties, such as those owned by nonprofit groups and the government. Those property owners are exempt from the new tax assessment.

The Downtown Detroit Partnership started lobbying late last year to make a Downtown Business Improvement Zone (BIZ) a reality within the boundaries of the Detroit River and each of the freeways.

In March, Detroit City Council voted unanimously to put the improvement district to a vote of area property owners.

“The fact that City Council voted unanimously to approve the Downtown Detroit Business Improvement Zone is one more example of the growing partnership we have in city government today,” said Mayor Mike Duggan. “This BIZ is a huge win for Detroit and shows how strong collaboration between the business and civic communities and elected officials can make a real difference in our city.”

Local business and property owners, as well as foundations, have voluntarily contributed more than $16.5 million for the Clean Downtown program since 2006. But that money was scheduled to dry up this year, so the DDP and other business owners, such as Compuware Corp., Rock Ventures LLC and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, wanted to create a permanent revenue stream to keep the sidewalks swept, the garbage collected and flowers planted, as well as put safety ambassadors on the streets.

Plus, they want to expand the Clean Downtown efforts beyond just Woodward Avenue and onto other downtown blocks.

“These services have been paid for by the generosity of a few businesses and organizations, and now it’s time to expand,” Dave Blasckiewicz told Crain’s in January. “We want to bring consistency across the entire district and add some new bells and whistles.”

Ballots went out last month, and property owners had 30 days to cast the mail-in votes.

“It all came in pretty consistently,” said Department of Elections Director Willie Wesley Jr. “We would get anywhere from five to 20 ballots a day. Today we made one more run to the post office at 4 p.m., and there was nothing.”

Now that the BIZ is official, the bill will show up on the summer property tax assessments. The 15-member BIZ board will be officially meeting and setting the organization's priorities.

"The Downtown Detroit BIZ will receive its first allotment of revenue in October of this year and will have full operating funds by March of 2015," according to a press release from the DDP. "The Downtown Detroit Partnership will continue current services, such as cleaning and landscaping programs, with voluntary funding sources until the Downtown Detroit BIZ is fully funded."

The zone's proposed boundaries would lie roughly between the freeways — I-75 to the north; I-375 to the east; M-10 to the west — and the Detroit River.

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